We started our mission exactly one year ago this coming Tuesday. Wow, we have finished a year. Amazing. Here is what we learned this week…
Monday’s mission devotional got moved to the
Church History Museum Auditorium apparently because the COB auditorium was needed for someone else’s group that was more important than us. We don’t fit in the CHM auditorium so they made all the zone leaders sit up on the stand. I didn’t mind that too much, but I was worried we were on camera for those viewing the devotional remotely and I have learned when I view online meetings that those in the background can be distracting if they are moving around a lot or talking to their neighbor. So I tried to just stay focused on looking at the speaker the whole time. We went into the library after that and had meeting after meeting, including our first
led by us zone council meeting. Then we headed over to the COB for lunch. We go there much more often now since it is so inexpensive. The rest of the day was busy with more meetings and just tons of other things on the floor. I am learning that when you are in charge, lots more people come to you with questions and comments and you just don’t have as much
you time.After getting off at 6pm we hurried home so that I could get ready to teach the apartment FHE lesson. Since I had taught about Lehi’s dream of the
Tree of Life (1 Nephi 8) the day before in our Gospel Doctrine class at church, I decided that would be a good topic for discussion for our FHE group and I wouldn’t need a lot of prep time. I used this picture from the
Come Follow Me lesson as my discussion starter. I just put it up on the tv screen in the lobby and asked everyone what was their favorite part of or thing they have learned from this dream. It went well, I think. Mom made cookies and they were yummy!
Tuesday was Pday. Mom had some shopping and returning to do and I went and worked out. Then she came home and went down to the library to do our Dutch paleography class. I think I can set it up so that we can do it on our iPads, but there wasn’t a ton of time when Mom got home to try it out so we just went down to the library and used the computer lab computers, which we learned that Sister Hillary had planned to do as well. Class was great and then we were off to the COB for lunch. We learned that they
had a BBQ buffet and Mom got ribs and burnt ends and a bunch of brisket to use later in the week. I got a salad. It was all very tasty. But after we were finished and were heading back to the apartment my stomach started feeling queasy. It got worse and worse as we walked and we barely made it back in time for me to get to the bathroom. Yuck! I spent the rest of the day just lounging around and trying to drink lots of water but eating nothing, as my stomach kept gurgling. I must have eaten something bad at lunch. The only thing we could think of was the salmon that I added to my salad. Mom didn’t eat any of that and we are pretty sure that it was leftover salmon from the lunch offerings the day before. Maybe someone left it sitting out too long. Bummer. But it didn’t deter us from going back to the COB again this week.
That night we watched
The Boys in the Boat movie. It of course was nowhere near as good as the book. I am sure you have learned as I have that there just is not enough time in a movie setting to include all that a book can deliver. They only told the story of the year they went to the Olympics and crammed together a bunch of earlier memories to try to create some sort of storyline, but it was still a fun movie to watch. After the movie I finally decided to try to eat something. Mom suggested oatmeal and it actually sounded good. So I had some and it seemed to work well.
Wednesday we worked out at the COB and then went in to the library. I had to go do a
New Missionary Orientation presentation at 10:15am. Every other week the mission gets new missionaries. They spend the week doing training and orientations about what goes on in our mission. On Wednesdays they bring them to the FamilySearch library where each zone takes about 10 or 15 minutes to explain what happens in their zone. We have a short PowerPoint that tells
about how many missionaries serve in our zone and what countries we help people with, and I also shared a couple of experiences I had had this past week helping people that come to our floor. After my presentation one of the sisters in the training zone came up to me and thanked me for bringing the Spirit to the meeting, which was a bit surprising to me. I had indeed felt the Spirit as I was telling about my experiences with guests on our floor and I should have remembered that whenever “a man speaketh by the power of the Holy Ghost the power of the Holy Ghost carrieth it unto the hearts of the children of men.” Those that are willing can then let it into their hearts and they feel the same spirit you feel. I have learned and experienced that hundreds of times over the years as I have taught the gospel of Jesus Christ and I really shouldn’t be surprised when it occurs.
The rest of the day was just one more meeting and lots and lots of emails. Mom kept commenting on how many more emails we are getting now that we are in this assignment. She was working on getting RootsTech tshirts ordered and our upcoming zone social and kept getting interrupted by emails. I was answering a bunch of those emails as well as trying to do some French training, but I never got to it. Each new email that came sent me off researching something, or looking for an answer or going over to talk to someone to figure out how to respond. We ended our night at 6pm and headed home and I have no clues what we did the rest of the night. I think we were just worn out by the day and rested.
Thursday I was worried that the guys replacing windows in our apartments might to get to ours, so I got up and moved the furniture in our bedrooms away from the windows and put some plastic sheeting over it. We then headed in to the library for what we thought was going to be a short easy day. When we got there we learned that our floor was pretty busy. There were quite a few people that we were helping which caused some juggling of assignments in order to get the right people helping when needed. Mom went to the
Zone Training Team meeting at 11am and I went up to an appreciation lunch the mission presidency was hosting for our Library Training revamp committee. When I got there they asked where Mom was. I told them that the invitation had just come to me and that Mom had not been on the committee. President Holmes said, “Go get your wife. She deserves to be here. Besides you need a
plus 1.” So I ran off and found Mom and we had a nice lunch of salads and desserts and heard compliments
from the presidency and the staff on what we were able to accomplish with the training revamp. After the meeting we talked with one of the staff, Suzi, about the next phase of revamping…Tier 3. This is the training that people do when they are learning about doing research in different countries, like what Mom and I have done in the Netherlands, and Mom in Italy and me in Sweden, Norway and France. She was saying that they want to develop a more cohesive structure for the training and not have overlaps, as well as not require too much or too little for people to be able to be certified in a particular country. I told her some of my thoughts and Mom did too and it sounds like we most likely will be part of that committee once it gets up and running. I learned last week that they want all the beginning training finished before the end of this year.
In the afternoon we went to the temple. Only Sister Pruner was able to come with us this time. We went out to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple and did a sealing session. Afterwards we decided to go out to dinner. Mom said that I had to choose where, so when I saw the
Nielsen’s Frozen Custard sign I joked that we were having frozen custard for dinner. But then I noticed it said
diner up there as well so I decided to try it out. I learned that they do indeed sell food items other than frozen custard. I had a yummy pastrami and cheese sandwich and Mom got fries which were just ok. We of course also got a frozen custard, a Bumble-Berry Concrete…it was so good!
Friday we had to change our schedule. We realized that the Deckers LOA had not been recognized early enough and our scheduler had them closing the library that night. We had our planned half day and were going to go to lunch with Zoë and her friends, so nobody was going to be there to close. So we asked the Blacks if they could stay until 6pm to close and we would come in early and open the floor and do prayer meeting. We thought we had it all worked out when suddenly Thursday night I remembered that we had a
Go Forth meeting that we needed to be at Friday at 9:30am. Ugh. We couldn’t be two places at the same time. So after we had our prayer meeting we talked
with our missionary working at the steward desk to see if she would be willing to
hold down the fort until the Blacks arrived, which she said she could, and then we headed off to our meeting. We thought we were going to be there for just about an hour and then bring our new missionary, Sister Marie LeFevre, back to the library to give her some orientation. But we learned that the meeting was going to last much longer than that and afterwards they had a brunch table and assigned us a cubicle there in the NOB where we could sit and chat with Sister LeFevre. We learned that she has a lot experience doing family history work and that her husband has been assigned to the Church History Library. We finished her orientation just in time to get back to the library to cover for the Blacks as they went to their
Leadership Pattern Journey class. Then I went upstairs to see if my cousin Vic and his wife Lisa were there. They were. They had found a book that listed
one of our ancestors, but were looking for another volume in the series that they hoped had a marriage record for him. I looked online and learned that the book was located in the FamilySearch library in Sacramento, but it also indicated I could access it online. But when I clicked on that link I learned that it was broken and we couldn’t access the book. Sadness. Then Zoë and her friends came in and Mom told them about our Escape Room. So we went up and did that, and they did great. They figured out most of the puzzles without many hints, especially the one with the microfilm and map. Afterwards we went to the
City Creek Food Court and got linner. I got a poke bowl and Mom got Indian Food. We had fun chatting with all the girls, but we didn’t get a picture. I have learned that I am not very good at remembering to take pictures. But Zoë did send us this picture today so that will have to do. After we finished lunch they all headed back down to Sugarhouse to play
Mah Jongg and Mom and I came home. We came home home expecting to see our windows replaced, because they didn’t get to them on Thursday, but nope, they still didn’t get to them today.
Saturday we headed into the library early and when we got there we realized we blew it, we needed to change our schedule to stay late. So we went back to the apartment, changed and went out for a walk. We got back to the library at 10am and got to work. Sister Beatrice Kopp came up to me and said she was helping a lady from France and wanted to know if I would like to shadow her. I said, “Yes, of course” and went to watch her. She is from Switzerland and knows French and was speaking with the woman in French. I was able to understand some of what they were talking about and after they had looked a couple of places to find a record for her grandfather they determined that it was too recent and the records weren’t available. But I had this little thought that maybe we should look for a marriage record in the online archives. I mentioned it, but the lady didn’t have much time and so Beatrice showed her how to get help from home, and then I had the thought come again. I didn’t say anything because she seemed like she needed to go. After she left it kept bugging me, so I went to find Beatrice to help me remember the grandfather’s name and birthplace. She had written it
down and so we went to work looking to see if we could find any records in the regional archives online. We found her grandfather’s name in about 5 minutes, written in a 10 year index and were so bummed. Then Beatrice needed to go to lunch and I stayed and looked more in other records. Within 10 minutes I found his birth record. Ugh! I think the lady could have waited 15 more minutes and we could have given her her grandfather’s birth record. I showed Beatrice when she got back from lunch and she said, “Oh no. We should have looked there first.” Then she said, “What have we learned?” I said, “I’ve learned I need to listen to little promptings when they come.” (I
guess I didn’t listen close enough to Elder Stevensen’s talk last October). I should have remembered what I learned years ago when we ran out of gas driving from Utah to California, that you always heed the little nudgings from the Spirit. I get so worried that I will offend someone or it will be inconvenient for them. Why haven’t I learned that the Spirit will never ask me to do something that is going to irritate someone else? It will only bring something that will bless their life and deliver more happiness. Beatrice then added that we have learned that we need to not just assume that the records are not available when the FamilySearch records or Geneanet show that they aren’t, they might be available elsewhere. Always look everywhere you can before assuming! Always learning! Well our floor was pretty busy and I was the floor leader so I was again shuffling people all around.
Vic and Lisa came down to our floor in the afternoon looking for German records help. Sister Haak was assigned to work with them and helped them translate a bunch of German documents. But we didn’t get to go out to eat or even chat very much, so they said they would come down again sometime soon and we would coordinate more ahead of time to set aside time to be together. We are looking forward to that and also finding the parents of Andrew Jackson Brooks.
I ended the day hosting the
Escape Room for a family that had made a reservation to come do it. It was fun. They were a fun group and did very good. I asked them a couple of times if they wanted a clue and they took me up on it and were able to use those clues to solve the puzzles in time to beat the room. Wahoo for them. I have done this enough times now and have learned just about when I can suggest they get a clue early enough that if they accept it they will have enough time to finish the room.
We came home pretty exhausted. We hadn’t eaten all day because we never got a chance to take a lunch break, so we had some baked beans with brisket and chicken salad on crackers for dinner and watched a movie, Above the Shadows, about a girl who is invisible. It was pretty good and had the actor that plays Reacher in it.
Today was church. We learned in sacrament meeting, or were reminded again, to trust the Lord with what He wants us to experience in our lives. There was a little time left over after the two speakers and the bishop took a few minutes to express his thoughts about how easy it seems to talk about faith, but more difficult to talk about trust. Truly learning to trust our Father in Heaven and let go of our own will and desires is a tough thing to do. We walked home after church and have spent the rest of the day…me working on this blog post and Mom on planning the refreshments for the next
One Heart Gathering as well as chatting with he Mangelson clan…checking in on he football scores (Mom was excited that the Chiefs won) and just relaxing. Now hopefully the Niners will win as well and it will have been a great day.
Love you all.
BE GOOD!
Mom and Dad
PS The Niners came from behind to win. Wahoo. Super Bowl bound.
Comments
Post a Comment